A Devotee Speaks

When I was very young I heard a summons well up within me, like a fountain of fresh water. I did not know what to think, but I knew what to do. I joined a band of wandering devotees, also summoned, also confused. We were a sorry company, lean, pock-marked, smelly, often sickly. We walked and walked through forests, villages, high hills, tundra, and only stopped to rest at isolated lakes or deserted valleys. Priests and parishioners alike banned from entering their churches. We knelt in a semi-circle at the steps below the great wooden doors decorated by carvings of the Savior's life. We prayed fiercely in the open air and sometimes raised our scrawny voices in hymns. But we knew our place was not among them, and withdrew before they emerged from God's Holy House. We withdrew back into the forests and deserts of God's original creation. We prayed everyday for God's grace to descend and bless every living thing. One day an Angel appeared suddenly among us, shining and glowing, and he spoke gently in our hearts. He led us in a forgotten dance, a dance of celestial things, with music heard in our hearts accompanying our movements. It was daylight when we began our dance-worship, it was deepest night when we stopped. We realized we were living angelic lives. We closed the night kneeling in communal prayer and did not notice the Angel had withdrawn... And then each of us felt the Hand of God touch his head. Again and again we felt that touch, both gentle and firm, absolutely a touch of grace. And soon afterwards a dozen once weak and confused men strode out of the wilderness, fully prepared to spread God's Joy to the world. My brothers and sisters in Jesus, I could tell you many things, if you are ready to hear them. Or I could stay silent and disappear like a cloud of morning mist in the sunlight. I could tell you of a life of service. I could tell you of a perpetual thirst. I could describe a Temple within your hearts you will never finish building. I could tell how we pray that your lives become a marriage of Goodness and Beauty, and behold how heavenly light shines over this blessed marriage. And the angels far above us, wrapped in heavenly glory, see your humanity expand to angelic dimensions. Trust me, there are so many things awaiting you. Oh! Oh! Everything will unfold before you, open out, and become a thousand times more than itself, and keep opening out into Space and Time as they steadily become an Eternity that brings you forever into God's presence....